Active8

Active8 unofficially began in 1990 when the founder, Liz Olive, was working with a disabled boy as his carer. After making friends with some disabled children who lived outside of Cornwall, he asked Liz why there were no opportunities for disabled children to socialise in and around the local area. As many disabled young people attend mainstream schools, they don’t often get the chance to meet others facing similar challenges – which can be isolating.

Using this as inspiration, Liz set up a number of networking events for disabled children to come together, and in 1998 Active8 became a registered charity. Since then, Active8 has come a long way and helped a lot of young people to come together.

Active8 have worked with the West Cornwall Youth Trust several times, and the money they have received has helped to fund several different projects – including one of their branch-off schemes, Acceler8, which provides residential getaways for youngsters 12 times a year.

“During our initial meeting with Liz Olive she explained how Active8 enabled the young people they worked with to broaden their horizons and raise their achievement levels – and Active8 came through and delivered. An impressive organization,” said Malcolm Woolcock, administrator for West Cornwall Youth Trust.

Active8 have said they like working with the Trust as our grants offer a great level of flexibility – they let you get on with running your charity rather than dictating where every penny is spent.